Thoughts on Western Kentucky a day late

Usually I’m calm and collected when watching a UCLA game. If they’re losing, I always think they’re going to come back. If they winning, the thought of the Bruins possibly blowing the lead seldom enters my mind.

But I’ll admit, I was getting nervous when the 21-point halftime lead got whittled to four, with Darren Collison fouled out and Russell Westbrook had four fouls. Though as the Bruins almost always do, they re-grouped and won the game, advancing to the Elite Eight to play Xavier.

I know UCLA will be a trendy upset pick against Xavier (and if UCLA wins, we’ll hear about why they’re going lose in the Final Four). They haven’t exactly looked amazing during this tournament run. But I still believe in them. We’ve all seen UCLA dominate before, and when they’re not on their game, we’ve all seen them find ways to win in the end. Why should we think differently the rest of the touranment?

One of the odd entertaining things about the game was on the sidelines. I’ve professed my love for mascots here before, and Big Red of Western Kentucky has to be one of my favorite random ones. He looks like a giant blog, a cross between the Kool-aid man and the Cookie Monster. Below is the classic SportsCenter commercial with Big Red:

Since I can’t get enough of Big Red, here’s a bonus video of him trying to pick up ladies:

Western Kentucky needs to continue to have good basketball teams, so we can see more Big Red.